England dominate player rankings

The ICC player rankings look healthy from an England perspective. Another thing worth noting is that I cannot remember Australia being so poorly represented in either the batting or bowling top 10

I think it shows that when we come up against South Africa, it will be a far closer series than the India series we have just witnessed...

TOP 10 batsmen

1 883 J.H. Kallis
2 838 K.C. Sangakkara
3 836 A.N. Cook
4 808 S.R. Tendulkar
5 784 I.J.L. Trott
6 775 S. Chanderpaul
7 767 I.R. Bell
8 766 T.T. Samaraweera
9 760 A.B. de Villiers
10 744 H.M. Amla

TOP 10 Bowlers

1 899 D.W. Steyn
2 803 J.M. Anderson
3 751 M. Morkel
4 727 M.G. Johnson
5 726 S.C.J. Broad
5 726 G.P. Swann
7 720 Zaheer Khan
8 652 Shakib Al Hasan
9 625 C.T. Tremlett
10 623 D.L. Vettori

not really a supprise tbh, england have been dominant and what is it 2 indians in both combined?

This shows how dominant England have been in the last year or so, 7 out of the 11 players in the Worlds Top 10 Batting/Bowling rankings, remarkable.

The 9th best bowler in the World can't get in the England team. I think Broad is ranked as the second best all-rounder after Kallis (who doesn't really bowl any more) as well.

Swann and Bresnan are also in the top 10 for all-rounders. http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/test/all-rounder/

the 9th best bowler is injured.....

Is he? Then why is he in the squad for the next game? Still, I don't think they can drop Bresnan after his recent performances, it looks like Tremlett will have to wait until an injury or loss in form to one of the three pacers offers him a way back.

Onions and Finn are in the squad

Tremlett's ruled out again through injury. Though it prevents an interesting debate when he returns.

Broad is ranked a better all rounder than Vettori? Rather strange, Vettori averages 39 with the bat for the last 3-4 years. Plus 103 wickets at 32. Vettori has scoed 4 hundreds and 9 fifties in that period.

Vettori hasn't played as many Tests as Broad recently.

In this series alone Broads batting average is 60 and 21 wickets at 11. Of course he's going to shoot up the rankings.

If the 2nd and 9th ranked bowlers in the world are missing form Englands lineup then Indian injury excuses really can "sit down shut up" if they lose again.

It is an importnat though about number of tests played recently boosting players rankings. However its equally fair to say that Englands bowlers being a pack mean individuals arent so relied upon as the strike bowler and wont always get feed the easy meat like Steyn for example.

As a core of bowlers theres no question Englnad have the most effective set in world cricket. Onions and Finn hardly have shabby records in the limited chances theyve had.

The rise in the rankings is primarily due to the fact that this is the only test series taking place at the moment. As soon as other series start those players performances will be included.

Matt Priors only ranked 25th as a batsman despite averaging 54 since the start of last summer. Pretty remarkable for a number 7 over 15 tests

robbo277 wrote:The 9th best bowler in the World can't get in the England team. I think Broad is ranked as the second best all-rounder after Kallis (who doesn't really bowl any more) as well.

Swann and Bresnan are also in the top 10 for all-rounders. http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/test/all-rounder/

Looking at the list it shows that most of the top countries no longer have top class allrounders in the traditional sense. Most teams have either batsmen who can bowl a bit, or vice versa. Guys like Bresnan, Swann, Kallis and Broad I don't see as being allrounders at the moment.

Shows how important your keeper being a test level batsmen is, as in a few teams its the Keeper who helps balance the team.

Well I think thats really always been the case. Perhaps what it shows is that in the modern test game theres less place for part time bowlers.
The need for a batting keeper really comes from all sides batting deeper. You can no longer have a tail starting at 7, and the number of genuine bowlers who can average sin the high twenties has shot up meaning a keeper like Boucher is no longer considered a good batsman.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Well I think thats really always been the case. Perhaps what it shows is that in the modern test game theres less place for part time bowlers.
The need for a batting keeper really comes from all sides batting deeper. You can no longer have a tail starting at 7, and the number of genuine bowlers who can average sin the high twenties has shot up meaning a keeper like Boucher is no longer considered a good batsman.

Fair points. I just think the All Rounder category for Tests is pretty pointless, as very few players are genuine all rounders.

Shane Watson is a genuine all rounder and IMO a very good one.

I would say Bresnan is a genuine all-rounder. Broads more of a bowling all-rounder.

Vettori, Watson, Bresnan and Al Hasan are the only genuine all-rounders at present.